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Determinism – A Thought Experiment

You wake up one morning and as you’re going through your regular routine for starting the day, a news item catches your eye. Maybe it’s on the radio that you tend to switch on first thing to wake yourself up. Or it could be on the television that’s on in the background just to catch the morning news programme. Maybe it’s in an e-mail that someone sent you, or on one of the websites that you scan habitually as you wake up. Or perhaps you just catch glimpses of people commenting on social media.

Still half asleep, you ask to yourself “what was that? Did they really just say what I thought they were saying?” You look a bit more closely now and you realise that, yes, they did say what you thought they were saying. And it’s absolutely stunning news.

An international panel of leading philosophers, religious leaders, neuroscientists, physicists, psychologists and other worthies has finalised its reports after almost a decade of work. Convened under the auspices of the United Nations the panel was given endless resources and time to study, debate and reach conclusions amongst themselves. It set up sub-committees and working groups, drew in other scientists and people from various disciplines and held public consultations.

No one expected the panel to come up with anything clear or decisive. Everyone thought that they would conclude that the question they were asked was not one on which consensus could be achieved. People expected the panel to compile some interesting work but to leave the big question largely unanswered or to end up fudging it. Over a number of years – long enough for the whole commission to have been forgotten by everyone apart from those most closely involved and those providing secretariat services – the panel wrote 24 big volumes of densely written analysis. The executive summary is a book in itself. But at a press conference over night, the chair of the panel, provided the clear and stunning conclusion in just one sentence:

The United Nation’s International Panel on Free Will and Determinism (UNIPFWD) found that we have no free will and that we are all fully pre-determined creatures.

Still thinking that this can’t be right, that it is sensationalist misreporting or a hoax, you look at more media channels and social media. It’s the same news story everywhere: We have no free will. Everything is pre-determined. It’s trending on social media: #nofreewill #determinism. You go outside, just because you suddenly feel a bit hemmed in as if the walls were closing in on you.

Your neighbour is already out and about. Excitedly he says, “did you hear the news… Amazing… what does it all mean? I’m struggling to get my head around this one…” You head to the corner-shop. The newspapers’ print deadline meant that they missed the story. Their headlines seem inane and meaningless now. The shopkeeper asks you whether you heard about the panel’s conclusion. He claims that he always thought that to be the case anyway.

You buy a few items and go back to your house. Now the question is:

What will you do all day?

Multiple Choice

I just try to forget about the news and stop thinking about the implications. I just want to get through my normal day.

I will spend the day watching TV and eating ice cream with cookies. As I'm not responsible for my actions what I do doesn't really matter.

Other (describe below)

This is how I'll spend my day...

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This is the first of a series of posts on determinism and free will. The next one is here.